LDS Church Spends About $40 Million on Humanitarian Efforts Per Year

Elder Dallin H. Oaks of the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles said the LDS Church spends approximately $40 million on humanitarian and welfare efforts per year, and has done so for more than 30 years.

Deseret News said, “That would account for approximately $1.2 billion on welfare and humanitarian efforts over the past 30 years.”

Elder Oaks also commented that Mormons have provided 25 million hours of such volunteer labor.

He said, “In the year 2015 we had 177 emergency response projects in 56 countries. In addition, we had hundreds of projects that impacted more than 1 million people in seven other categories of assistance, such as clean water, immunization and vision care.”

The Deseret News article cited other examples of LDS aid:

Also recently, PBS devoted a seven-minute report on the show “Religion & Ethics Newsweekly” to the LDS Church’s welfare system. According to reporter Lucky Severson, the system, which includes 115 bishop’s storehouses in the United States, “holds enough provisions to meet the projected demands of members and nonmembers in the United States and Canada for two years.”

Last year while addressing a gathering in the Houses of Parliament, located at the Palace of Westminster, Elder Jeffrey R. Holland of the Quorum of the Twelve shared some numerical data about the LDS Church’s humanitarian efforts.

“Last year, LDS Charities responded to 132 disasters of one kind or another in 60 nations of the world, including a major typhoon in the Philippines, a destructive cyclone in the Kingdom of Tonga, the Ebola outbreak in West Africa and extensive refugee assistance for Syria and Iraq,” Elder Holland said, according to the Deseret News.

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About Lauren Kutschke

Lauren is studying Journalism at Brigham Young University and considers the East Coast home. She has a passion for writing, photography, skiing, hiking, and traveling. She enjoys studying German and is married to her best friend.